It’s All In Your Head
It’s All in Your Head by Hal Huggins is one of the classic texts on mercury poisoning caused by amalgam fillings. It is truly a must-read for anyone who knows that they are mercury toxic, and a great introduction to the topic for everyone else. Huggins’s writing is easy to read, and he makes a subject that could be boring quite fascinating by weaving in the stories of his patients, and talking about his own personal ‘amalgam awakening.’
One of the things I like most about Hal Huggins is that he’s a dentist. He practised conventional dentistry the nasty old way “taking a shower bath in mercury mist for several hours every day” for decades until his eyes were opened to the dangers of amalgam.
Huggins started out as a true believer, trusting that his parent organization, the American Dental Association, has his and his patient’s health and well being at heart. But he began to ask questions about amalgam that nobody in charge wanted to answer, and he went from nuisance to outcast, scorned and ridiculed by his peers, and eventually was delicensed by the ADA because he just wouldn’t shut up about how toxic amalgam fillings were.
He wrote It’s All In Your Head because none of his peers were willing to listen to the countless cases of “spontaneous remission” of incurable disease that were happening in his dentist’s chair. Given his status as a pariah in dental circles, rejected by the professional journals, he turned to us, the general public to share his findings. And aren’t we lucky he did.
It’s All In Your Head of course covers all the hard facts, the precautions that must be taken when amalgam fillings are removed, the lists of replacement materials and how to judge their safety. But it’s Huggins’s growing awareness and professional and personal struggle that really bring the book to life.
I had two favorite moments in the book. The first was this quote summing up the amalgam experience:
“Poking a balloon with a pin will break the balloon, but pulling the pin out will not restore it.”
Hopefully more of the medical and dental community will catch on to this fact, and stop poking mercury pins in people.
The second was his dietary recommendation to eat a quarter pound of butter each day. This is something I would have thought quite nutty a few years ago, but after everything I’ve learned about nutrition actually sounds like a good idea. I think I might give it a try…
Mercury Stories 